The burglars, identified as Charles Allen Dixon and Michael McDaniel, showed up in the grandmother’s Baytown house at 5:30 on Wednesday morning. The grandmother’s house had been the target of burglars before, because it was vacant since she’d been put in a nursing home. The teen had moved into the house, apparently in part to protect his grandmother’s possessions from invaders.

Michael Daniel, left, is in critical care; Charles Dixon, right, died at the scene

The teen confronted Dixon and McDaniel with a shotgun and ordered them to put their hands up. When they ignored his order, he shot them. Dixon died on the scene. McDaniel was wounded, but able to escape. He later went to a local hospital for treatment, and was in serious condition. Burglary charges against him are pending. The woman who drove him to the hospital has been questioned as a possible accomplice.

The grandmother’s neighbors say that the teen did the right thing. Said neighbor Abe Garcia, “He did good, he did right, he did his job.” Another neighbor, Barbara Car, said of the burglars that “They probably were thinking they were coming into an empty house, which they weren’t. The grandson was there.” Carr added “That’s why the grandson was there, I guess, trying to protect what his grandmother had left.”

The teen is no stranger to law enforcement, for a good reason — he’s a past participant in a program for young people interested into a career in law enforcement. Police are not expecting to press charges.